Learning to Love

Actually, I think I’m learning to recognize love in new ways… and that in turn is teaching me how to love in new ways. I knew that love appeared during holidays. I expected love in church pews and in group hugs. I dreamt that love would start with a white dress and lead to romance always.

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It’s not that love isn’t those things, it’s just that it has come to be so much more.

Love is a post-it note in a lunchbox.
Love is patience with slow drivers and cashiers.
Love is warm food on a cold day.
Love is returning your grocery cart.
Love is retrieving the piece of trash in the middle of the park.
Love is doing the dishes… again.
Love of others isn’t very fashionable.
Love is often lived more than it is spoken.
Love is given, not guilted.
Love is a choice.
Love often comes without flowers.
Love is thankful.
Love does not only take the form of chocolate and balloons.
Love is a gift.
Love is a cold glass of water or a hot cup of coffee.
Love does not always appear in handwritten love notes.
Love is a an hour-long phone conversation.
Love is giggling through a meeting with one of your dears.
Love is remembering.
Love is felt… and seen… and given as we live our lives.
Love is HIM.
Love is in the nails and the cross.
Love is here.
Love is today… but love is also tomorrow… and every day that comes.

“Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it — not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives…” 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 (The Message)

“…No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.” 1 Corinthians 13:3-10 (msg)

About Ginger Ciminello

Ginger is a work-from-home mom of two girls, the wife of a good man, as well as a speaker and writer. Her book, Forget the Corsage, was written to mentor the young women she’s met in auditoriums around the country. She has a deep desire to connect with women of all ages and encourage them to laugh, learn from her many mistakes, and connect with the Lord through a rich study of Scripture.